Scottish Power Helps Out

The Scottish Power volunteer team has been helping out at the Club

The tireless Scottish Power volunteer team has once again been helping out at the club. The group ondertook the painting of the games room and building a poly-tunnel greenhouse on the allotment. The final results were impressive and really helped improve the facilities at the Club.

Many thanks to Scottish Power and their team for their generous help and hard work.

Volunteers Are Us

Shaftes celebrates its many volunteer helpers

As well as our hard-working and loyal staff the Club relies heavily on a keen and reliable bunch of volunteers. The work which we do with our young Club members is made much more effective by the unsung efforts of lots of unpaid helpers. They are of all ages, girls and boys, women and men, individuals and whole families, and from all parts of our community. Some are parents of members, some are ex-members, some are local residents. They all have one thing in common: they recognize the great work which we do and they want to help.

So what do they do? Club volunteers run the art class, coach teams, referee games, tend the allotment, pick up litter, help with building and maintenance work and generally help out in the daily running of the Youth Club. Recently Shaftes decided that we should celebrate all these amazing efforts. As part of National Volunteers’ Week we threw a thank-you party. All our volunteers were invited and most were there to receive a special certificate as well as the thanks of Club staff and Council members.

Local Companies and National Citizens Help Out

Local companies have shown real community spirit by involving staff volunteers in club projects which makes a real difference to the life of the Club. Last year Scottish Power sent a large team of young apprentices to dig over the allotment. This year the Lever Brothers community team installed a much needed sink in our art room and a tap in the allotment.

Recently the National Citizen Service (NCS) helped Shaftes to re-develop the memorial garden. Young people involved in the NCS chose the Club as their charity as part of a two week outdoor residential course. The work required them to remove fencing. strim weeds and remove waste. They levelled ground and installed wooden sleepers as steps, laid flags and placed a bench.

they organised the project and raised money. Tools and materials were donated and some parents were enlisted to help. A bingo night raised the money to buy the steps. The 15 - 17 year-olds received great support from Shaftes' own Mr Kelly, who acted as a supervisor and will continue to develop the garden. We hope that some of the young people will return to the Club as volunteers.

More information can be found at: National Citizen Service Website.

We are very grateful for this kind of contribution by the organisations who take part, and we hope that we too contribute something to the participants' experience and appreciation of the variety of clubs, schemes and local initiatives they so willingly assist.

Allotment Gets Scottish Power Boost

The Club has had a very productive year for growing a huge range of vegetables on its large allotment.

Work on the allotment was led by Mr Kelly who, with help from our members, dug, planted and tended the beds. Potatoes, pumpkins, peas, sweet corn, lettuce and tomatoes in the greenhouse were just some of the abundance of produce we were able to grow in the sunny and fertile plot. Vegetable beds need to be cleared and the allotment tidied after cropping; given the size of our plot this is quite a task.

Our need for willing workers coincided with Scottish Power’s community volunteer programme for its apprentices. Twenty-five young people worked solidly all day on 24th October preparing the allotment for winter and the 2015 season. This was a very successful and good-natured day. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make the allotment so productive!

The Ron Smith Volunteer of the Year Award

The late Ron Smith was a former Chairman of the Shaftes Council and in his name we present an award (kindly donated to the Club by Ron’s son) to our Volunteer of the Year.

In 2014 the deserving winner was 14 year-old Amy Birrs (above). Amy helps out most evenings with a range of activities including IT, the coffee bar and with the various events held at the Club. She also gave the reading at the 2014 Remembrance Service (below).